Human Development and Nature vs Nurture

Human Development

• Focuses on the scientific study of systematic processes of change and stability in people
• Life-Span Development: the concept of lifelong development, a process that can be studied scientifically
• Life-Span Perspective: highlights development as a lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual process, involving growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss.
• Physical Development: involves growth of the body and brain, including sensory capabilities, motor skills, and health.
• Cognitive Development: encompasses learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, and creativity.
• Psychosocial Development: focuses on emotions, personality, and social relationships.

Nature and Nurture

• Human Development: a scientific study of how people change and remain stable throughout their lives
• Behavioral Genetics: a scientific field that studies the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to behavioral differences among individuals.
• Heritability: the extent to which differences among people are attributable to genetic differences
• Twin Studies, Adoption Studies, and Family Studies: research methods to assess the degree of heritability
• Gene-Environment Interaction: how the effects of genes depend on the environment and how the environment influences the expressions of genes
• Gene-Environment Correlations: three kinds: Passive, Reactive, and Active
• Passive: children's genotypes influence the environment they are placed in
• Reactive: children's genotypes evoke different reactions from other people
• Active: children seek out or create environments that fit with their genotypes
• Shared Environmental Influences: experiences common to all members of a family, e.g., parenting style
• Non-Shared Environmental Influences: unique experiences within a family, e.g., parental favoritism

Research Methods

• Case Study: a detailed examination of a particular individual or group to explore unusual problems, treatments, and developmental issues
• Ethnographic Studies: systematically describe cultures in their entire range of customs, beliefs, and behavior
• Correlational Studies: assess relationships between traits or behaviors without manipulating variables
• Experiments: studies that manipulate variables to reveal causal relationships

Developmental Research Designs

• Cross-Sectional Studies: compare people of different ages at a single point in time to determine if there are developmental changes
• Longitudinal Studies: track changes across many years to observe consistent patterns of development
• Sequential Studies combine cross-sectional and longitudinal designs to examine age-related changes and cohort effects

Developmental Theories

• Psychosexual Theory by Sigmund Freud: proposes that stages of personality development are determined by stages of early childhood's psychosexual development, including the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego
• Psychosocial Theory by Erik Erikson: proposes that development involves particular crises that must be resolved for healthy development; includes crises relevant to different stages of life
• Cognitive Development Theory by Jean Piaget: suggests that children's thinking changes through distinct stages; it includes Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational stages.
• Social Cognitive Theory by Albert Bandura: emphasizes that people's beliefs about their ability to perform a behavior, their self-efficacy, plays a key role in their motivation toward and completion of goals
• Sociocultural Theory by Lev Vygotsky: describes that complex mental processes are not only developed within the individual but also socially through interactions with more knowledgeable others

Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood Stages

• Each stage has a distinctive approach and characteristics

Critical Issues During Prenatal Development

• Women of normal weight are less likely than overweight women to have birth complications
• Overweight mothers have a risk of having longer deliveries, needing more health care services, gestational diabetes, cesarean delivery, birth defects, etc.
• Miscarriage: spontaneous loss of pregnancy before the 20th week
• Stillbirth: loss of a pregnancy after the 20th week
• Teratogens: substances that can cause birth defects; examples include drugs, alcohol, medications, and environmental toxins

Cognitive Development

• Assimilation: applying existing schemes to new information.
• Accommodation: modifying existing schemes to fit new information.
• Equilibration: achieving balance between assimilation and accommodation.
• Children aged between 2 and 5 years old actively explore and understand the world around them.
• Preoperational stage: children's thinking is dominated by their own perspective (ages 2-7).